The present invention relates generally to methods of maintaining articles of clothing, such as dress shirts and other fine fabrics, in a folded condition and more particularly to a new method of maintaining an article of clothing in a folded condition and to a plastic fastener well-suited for use in said method.
Certain articles of clothing, most notably men's dress shirts, are often packaged and sold in a folded condition so as to minimize any wrinkling of the article and so as to present the article in an otherwise flattering manner. Typically, the article is maintained in a folded condition by means of one or more straight metal pins, each of said straight metal pins typically comprising an elongated shaft terminating at one end in a sharp tip designed to penetrate the article and at the other end in a rounded head designed not to penetrate the article. Typically in use, the article is folded, and a plurality of said pins are used to maintain the article in its folded condition by securing the article to itself at a plurality of different locations. Often, in the case of men's dress shirts, one or more of said pins are additionally used to secure the shirt to a piece of cardboard or to a similar backing material. The act of using straight metal pins to maintain an article of clothing in a folded condition is typically referred to in the art as "shirt-pinning."
Although straight metal pins have achieved widespread use in maintaining articles of clothing in a folded condition, certain shortcomings are associated therewith. One such shortcoming is that no suitable tool exists for dispensing such pins into an article of clothing; consequently, the pins must be inserted manually. As can readily be appreciated, the repeated insertion of such pins into articles of clothing, over time, can become both physically and mentally taxing. Another shortcoming associated with the use of straight metal pins is that the pins, as noted above, have sharp ends, which can cause injury both to the person who must insert the pin into the article and to the person (i.e., consumer) who must remove the pin from the article. Moreover, once the pins are removed from the article, they must be disposed of properly to avoid injury to others. Still another shortcoming associated with the use of straight metal pins is that such pins, when inserted, may cause damage to the article, either by snagging and tearing the article or by creating a conspicuous insertion hole in the article. Still yet another shortcoming associated with the use of straight metal pins is that such pins, once inserted into an article of clothing, can be difficult to access and manipulate in such a way as to enable their removal.
Plastic fasteners of the type comprising an elongated flexible filament having a first cross-bar at one end and a paddle or a second cross-bar at the opposite end are well-known and have been widely used in the attachment of merchandise tags to articles of commerce, as well as in other types of applications, such as in shoe-lasting and in packaging applications. Typically, such plastic fasteners are mass-produced by molding processes into either one of two different types of assemblies. One such assembly, an example of which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,103,666, inventor Bone, issued Sep. 17, 1963 (which patent is incorporated herein by reference), is a clip-type assembly, said clip comprising a plurality of fasteners, each such fastener comprising a flexible filament having a first cross-bar at one end thereof and a paddle or second cross-bar at the opposite end thereof. The fasteners are arranged side-by-side, with the respective first cross-bars parallel to one another and the respective paddles or second cross-bars parallel to one another, each of the first cross-bars being joined to a common, orthogonally-disposed runner bar by a severable connector.
Several commercial embodiments of the aforementioned fastener clip have been sold by the present assignee, Avery Dennison Corporation, as DENNISON.RTM. SWIFTACH.RTM. fastener clips. DENNISON.RTM. SWIFTACH.RTM. fastener clips comprising fasteners of the type having a cross-bar at one end of a flexible filament and a paddle at the opposite end of the flexible filament are generally made of polypropylene or nylon and are typically used to attach merchandise tags and the like to articles of clothing. The filaments of such fasteners are typically at least about 12.5 mm in length. DENNISON.RTM. SWIFTACH.RTM. fastener clips comprising fasteners of the type having a first cross-bar at one end of a flexible filament and a second cross-bar at the opposite end of the flexible filament are made of nylon and are used to attach merchandise tags and the like to a wide variety of articles of commerce. In addition, such fasteners are used in shoe-lasting applications and in packaging applications, where the high tensile strength afforded by the use of nylon in the fastener is desirable. The filaments of such fasteners are typically at least about 6.35 mm in length.
As far as the present inventors are aware, the above-described fastener clip, exemplified by the family of DENNISON.RTM. SWIFTACH.RTM. fastener clips, has not been used to maintain an article of clothing, such as a dress shirt, in a folded condition.
A second type of fastener assembly, an example of which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,076, inventor Bourque, issued Aug. 6, 1985 (which patent is incorporated herein by reference), is known as continuously connected fastener stock. In one type of continuously connected stock, the fasteners comprise a flexible filament having a cross-bar at one end thereof and a paddle at the opposite end thereof, the respective cross-bars and paddles of successive fasteners being arranged end-to-end and being joined together by severable connectors. In another type of continuously connected fastener stock, often referred to as "plastic staples," the fasteners comprise a flexible filament having a first cross-bar at one end thereof and a second cross-bar at the opposite end thereof, the respective first cross-bars and second cross-bars of successive fasteners being arranged end-to-end and being joined together by severable connectors. Plastic staples are typically made of polyurethane and are often used to attach tags, at two distinct points, to pants and similar clothing articles.
Tools (often referred to as "tagging guns") for dispensing individual fasteners from multi-fastener assemblies of the two different types described above are known, examples of such tools being disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,024,365, 4,533,076, 4,456,161, 4,121,487, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,123, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, and including the Dennison.TM. Mark II.TM. SWIFTACH.RTM. tools.
It is the understanding of the present inventors that, for a limited time in the past, a third party used plastic staples to "pin" shirts, albeit not dress shirts or other shirts of a fine material, so as to maintain the shirts in a folded condition. It is the belief of the present inventors that the aforementioned securing was achieved using a dual needle fastener dispensing tool of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,076 and was performed by folding the shirt, inserting both needles of the tool entirely through the folded-over portion of the article and then dispensing both cross-bars through the needles and the folded article so that both cross-bars were positioned on one side of the article, with the filament connecting the two cross-bars extending over to the opposite side of the article. It is further believed by the present inventors that the aforementioned use of plastic staples to "pin" shirts was discontinued because the plastic staples did not have sufficient tensile strength to maintain the shirt in its folded condition (plastic staples typically having a tensile strength of about 1.2-1.4 pounds).